M:TW cavalry is utterly worthless? I am proud to field an all cav army and confident enough to field it against good MP players. Even 3/4 cav army would fare well. Of course, it won't be able to win 1vs1 battles, but it is far from worthless.

Flank attack was always the hallmark of any respectable cavalry corp, from the time Philips II of Macedonia to modern time.

About your question of French cavalry: since I have not seen the complete stats, I am not able to say if French cavalry is best or not. It is not true that any unit you can build when flank another unit would win. Cavalry does have the charge bonus, combining with flanking (and you need speed to flank, which is another advantage that cavalry could have), would make cavalry the ideal unit for playing hammer in a hammer-anvil tactic.

Anniep